Social media has rapidly become an important part of many peoples’ lives, not just as a way to keep up with friends and family, but also for professional networks, exploring fields of research, shopping, sharing content and fostering online communities.

It has also become a crucial aspect of a businesses’ online presence- now a firm can connect with consumers and tailor their online relationships with customers, other brands, and with employees.Predicting quite what is going to happen in this ever changing digital landscape isn’t easy, but it’s certainly worth noting some of the rising trends and having a look ahead to 2013.

Learn more about these trends, including social marketing, content development, branding, video + media applications, social tv, and the growing influence of mobile devices in social media...

I love that point Martin! I think people call it social because of the personal element to it as opposed to advertising and things like that, especially because it's so interactive in nature. Do you have a suggestion as to what to change the name to?

(From the article): "The coming year will see a massive increase in companies using social media services to market their goods and services, recognising the potential for sharing content and information and enhancing engagement with target audiences."

These are “a new type of credential being developed by some of the most prominent businesses and learning organizations in the world, including Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, the University of California, the Smithsonian, Intel and Disney-Pixar.”

The new European university context requires a methodological and evaluative shift towards active didactic, socio-constructive and investigative perspectives that are student-centred. This study describes the learning setting, the results and the conclusions of an innovative practical exercise carried out by first-year students on two different degree courses at an Andalusian university, using e-portfolios set up for group work and implemented through an edublog. The study's main aim is to establish the most significant achievements, problems and evidence that emerge from this didactic group project. The project includes the design and implementation of a multimedia educational material (MEM), and involves the students in didactic planning and self-assessment processes. The conclusions show that the e-portfolio is a didactic method that fully integrates teaching, learning and assessment into a continuum by allowing students to work together didactically on such aspects. This methodological alternative also greatly helps the lecturer in his/her understanding of the students' learning processes, the working methods of his/her classes, the problems associated with team working, the information sources that students use, and the tutoring and learning-assessment processes. Lastly, the e-portfolio enables the future social educators' levels of didactic comprehension and professional-competency acquisition to be gauged.

Ever wanted to build your own online school? A new Wordpress plugin called Sensei by WooThemes might be a good place to start. The post New WordPress Plugin Lets You Build Your Own Online School appeared first on Edudemic.

PLOS Collections : Article collections published by the Public Library of Science World register of marine species. It is open data -you can download and use it. We are going to see a new world of open data where students are explorers.

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